Secondary school teachers’ perspectives on teaching about topics that bridge science and religion

The question of where to locate teaching about the relationships between science and religion has produced a long-running debate. Currently, science and religious education (RE) are statutory subjects in England and are taught in secondary schools by different teachers. This paper reports on an interview study in which 16 teachers gave their perceptions of their roles and responsibilities when teaching topics that bridge science and religion and the extent to which they collaborated with teachers in the other subject areas. We found that in this sample, teachers reported very little collaboration between the curriculum areas. Although the science curriculum makes no mention of religion, all the science teachers said that their approaches to such topics were affected by their recognition that some pupils held religious beliefs. All the RE teachers reported struggling to ensure students know of a range of views about how science and religion relate. The paper concludes with a discussion about implications for curriculum design and teacher training.     

Tradutore,traditore: Can the aect code of ethics “speak” across cultures?

Conclusion Although many questions remain unanswered, these early translations of the AECT Code of Ethics will be available at the AECT Web site to ensure that access to the principles is offered in languages other than English. As they become available, more translations will be added to the English, Farsi, French, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish versions. The translations will be saved as PDF files to retain the unique characters of each language. Additional translators with expertise in both educational technology and the targeted languages will be identified. Exploration of ways to encourage debate regarding the viability of the translations within diverse cultures continues. The ultimate hope is that collaboration among members of the professional ethics committee of AECT, the translators, and interested educators will result in the development of a Code of Ethics that “speaks” across cultures and establishes a meaningful guide to professional conduct around the world. Authors’ Note: This article expands on earlier work published in the (2002) Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, edited by M, Simonson.     

Infant attention scaffolding at home

The purpose of the study was to identify the mechanisms underlying the links between maternal attention directing strategies and infants’ focused attention. In the first year of life temporal organisation of dyadic behaviour was examined in the home. A sample of 50 dyads was videorecorded for one hour during usual activities, twice at 5- and 8-months of age. Onset and offset of maternal behaviours toward objects, and infants’ attention were noted. Sequential analyses demonstrated dependencies between partner’s behaviours: infants and mothers adjusted to each other’s activity. Maternal behaviours were classified as introducing, maintaining and redirecting attention: over both ages, the most frequent maternal behaviour was introducing, which did not systematically attract the infant’s attention; maintaining was the second most frequent maternal behaviour. Infants focused their attention longer when the mother used introducing or maintaining strategies. Older infants initiated a greater proportion of attention focusing episodes. At both ages inter-dyads variability is very large, with a significant inter-ages stability. The present data bring further support to the interpretation of parental activity as a genuine scaffolding of attention.     

Networking and the use of information technologies in the French education system

Conclusion It may be pointed out in conclusion that the two connotations of the word ‘network’— the fact of working together coupled with that of the new information and communication media—finally come together and situate the French education system in a real context of change, for both connotations are obviously complementary. Communication, co-operative work, the pooling of resources and skills, with a view to improving the quality and effectiveness of education and promoting equality of opportunity through access to knowledge, are central to these various projects. Thanks to the greater flexibility made possible by these tools, a new public—those who are isolated or those who find it impossible to move—are and will be taken into account. The purpose of these projects is to increase the performance of the education system and adapt it to the social and economic realities of the community. This shows how important it is to facilitate their implementation, in association with all partners concerned. Original language: French Fran?ois Louis (France) University degrees in public law and labour law and a graduate of the French école nationale d'administration (ENA) (1979). Since 1989, he has been head of the Planning and Resources Management Unit of the French Direction des lycées et collèges, after having held the post of Secretary-General of educational administration for the Paris region. In 1994, he published a book entitledDécentralisation et autonomie des établissements [Decentralization and school autonomy], as well as a report published by OECD in 1995 entitledL'enseignement secondaire en France, la mutation des dix dernières années [Secondary education in France, a decade of change].     

The Importance of “Focusness”: Focus Groups as a Means of Collection Management Assessment

ABSTRACT

In order to assess the Library's collection, the Collection Development Assessment Team at Cleveland State University used focus groups to complement the information gathered in LibQUAL+?. Groups of undergraduates, graduates, and faculty participated in four separate focus groups. All groups reported they were essentially satisfied with the collection but also wanted better local collections and used OhioLINK to supplement their research; fewer users also utilized the rich resources of the public library systems. In keeping with previous surveys, all groups wanted more full-text available electronically, faster access to materials, and a more navigable website. It appeared that the more sophisticated the user, the more satisfied they were with the collection. The Special Collections focus group would like to have more materials digitized, improved accessibility to the collection and website, and increased interaction with the community to heighten awareness of the collection and in order to gather more primary materials for the collection.